as novartis decides, virax awaits ip reviewer

While today's Virax IP update appears to have moved the market, the statement lacks detail.

There's no news on what's in - or what will be in - the final IP report and we're not told when the final report will be released.

This is making some restive. The longer the report takes to finalize, the more money Virax will be obliged to outlay.

As I've posted, the IP review progress is being affected by paperwork issues.

The question arises as to why Virax issued today's newsless report.

Perhaps it wanted to highlight its TG4010 cancer drug relationship with Strasbourg-based Transgene affiliate in a focused way.

The last reference to Transgene was buried in Virax's February 11 response to an ASX "Aware" letter dated February 7.

Novartis now has less than seven weeks before it decides whether to exercise an option it has with Transgene to commercialize Virax-sourced TG4010.

If Novartis says yes, it will pay Transgene about $A1 billion plus royalties.

Novartis money would indirectly flow to Virax.

This would allow the Virax to join the few Australian biotechs that have their income plugged into a blockbuster, ie a drug that produces revenue of $US1 billion plus a year.

If Novartis says no to TG4010, Transgene will almost certainly apply Plan B, sealing a TG4010 deal with a big pharma rival to Novartis.

Virax chairman, Dr Wayne Millen, would be hoping that Virax's full IP report will be issued by the end of February and certainly by March 5, which would mark three months since the the IP review was first announced.

There are two main parties involved in the IP project. The first is the unidentified reviewer. The second is Norton Rose Fulbright, Virax's corporate/IP legal adviser.

I would expect the report to include commercially sensitive info.

For that reason I doubt the full report will be released - just discreet extracts.

Meanwhile, the market welcomed today's Virax statement by lifting the share price 25pc to as some-time high of $0.015 before closing at $0.014 on elevated volume of 4.3m and giving a cap of $7.7m.

A check of the course of trades reveals just one transaction at $0.015.

Trade size? - 194 units.